So, as all things do, the trip is finished and while we struggle with jet lag, catching up with friends and family, as well as juggling catching up on missed school/work, I thought I'd take a quick look back at the trip.
When I left I don't think I had a lot of expectations. Really, I thought it would be a nice break from school and a great chance to see some of the sites of the world. What I didn't really anticipate was just how amazing everything was and is!
If there was one thing I didn't like in Europe, it was the amount of smokers there are and that made me really proud of what the Australian government has done to reduce the amount of smokers here. But seriously, that was the only thing I wasn't mad keen on in Europe.
I only wish we were studying Ancient Rome this year instead of year 7 because it's so much different seeing the things in real life rather than reading and looking at them in a book. Also, you can gather so much more information and it adds a whole new dimension to the history that you study-it all becomes a lot more real.
Studying French for just over 2 years, I thought my French was reasonably good. Unfortunately, it was when I arrived there that I realised I didn't even know how to ask for 10 tickets for the metro and the only thing I knew that was vaguely useful was "Parlez-vous Anglais?" Now, Dad's going around claiming he's "Multi-Lingual" because he can speak a few words of French and Italian. I think he's dreaming. My dream didn't come true though, us I can speak no more Dutch now than I could when i entered Dutch-land. Well actually, I can say Good Bye (Tot Ziens!) But not much else.
Languages are hard.
All, the places we went to were pretty unbelievable and it would be impossible to fit it all in. The place that I was pretty amazed by was the Netherlands. Amsterdam isn't exactly the most family friendly place and a lot of tourists don't make it far past there but once you do, it's one of the most beautiful countries! It's hard to believe sometimes that it's all been man-made and it was once all marsh land!
In many ways, I'm very sad to be home, but in others being home is probably pretty good and I don't know how much longer I could've lasted being away. I just know that one day I'll go back and explore Europe more, but for now I think I need to focus on my life at home. So many things have happened while I've been away and I wish I had been here....
Love,
Emma xxxxx
Monday 30 May 2011
Thursday 19 May 2011
I'm Riding My Bicycle....
Sorry everyone that I haven't written much lately-I've been so busy!! Plus check out http://cyclingdutchstyle.com.au to see some of my other blogging work ;)
So, the last time I wrote I was in Groningen. Well, now we are in Amsterdam!! To get here we have rode from Groningen to Sneek and on to Hindeloopen. Then we took a ferry across the bay and rode down the costline to Amsterdam.
Sneek was quite pretty and I wish we'd had a bit more time there! There were lots of shops to explore and I liked the general layout of the town. Also, there we had booked out pretty much the whole hotel so they let us keep our bikes in the lobby!! That was a bit of an amusing site and because we had caught the train part of the way there, we had been one of the first to arrive and our bikes were right up the back!
Hindeloopen was so cute and we had booked out most of the hotel rooms in the town (across 2 seperate hotels!) We had even had to put our orders in a couple of days early so the restaurant we were eating at would have enough of all the ingredients!! It was nice walking around there and it was very relaxing.
Amsterdam is completely different from most of the other places we've been to on the cycle tour. Several of us (including me unfortunately) have been nearly killed by stepping out into the way of bikes we didn't expect. Thankfully, no one has actually died yet!
Also in Amsterdam, today we had a "Group Lunch" planned and turned up to find that we were having lunch while cruising round Amsterdam on a boat! I can't tell you how excited everyone was!!! It was a really good way to see the sights of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is really busy! Especially since we've come from the small town of Hindeloopen! But we're not staying long here-tomorrow we are off to Utrecht. There is not so long left on the tour now and so much to see!
Another thing too that Dad insisted I say is that we have discovered one of the most amazing foods while here in Dutch-Land: Stroopwaffels!! They're 2 really thin waffely things that have a layer of gooey, caramelly stuff in the middle! YUM! We've had them everyday since we discovered them!!
In excactly a week from now I will be on a plane, not far from home. 7 weeks is the longest I've ever been away from home. It doesn't feel like 7 weeks though. In some ways it feels like 2 weeks, in another it feels like 3 months. It feels like a whole lot more than 6 weeks ago that we were seeing the sights of Rome but it all seems to have gone so fast! At the moment I'm just trying to enjoy every second of it while it lasts!!!
Heres hoping that we pick up some nice weather in Dubai to bring home to Melbourne!
Lots of Love,
Emma xxxxxx
So, the last time I wrote I was in Groningen. Well, now we are in Amsterdam!! To get here we have rode from Groningen to Sneek and on to Hindeloopen. Then we took a ferry across the bay and rode down the costline to Amsterdam.
Sneek was quite pretty and I wish we'd had a bit more time there! There were lots of shops to explore and I liked the general layout of the town. Also, there we had booked out pretty much the whole hotel so they let us keep our bikes in the lobby!! That was a bit of an amusing site and because we had caught the train part of the way there, we had been one of the first to arrive and our bikes were right up the back!
Hindeloopen was so cute and we had booked out most of the hotel rooms in the town (across 2 seperate hotels!) We had even had to put our orders in a couple of days early so the restaurant we were eating at would have enough of all the ingredients!! It was nice walking around there and it was very relaxing.
Amsterdam is completely different from most of the other places we've been to on the cycle tour. Several of us (including me unfortunately) have been nearly killed by stepping out into the way of bikes we didn't expect. Thankfully, no one has actually died yet!
Also in Amsterdam, today we had a "Group Lunch" planned and turned up to find that we were having lunch while cruising round Amsterdam on a boat! I can't tell you how excited everyone was!!! It was a really good way to see the sights of Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is really busy! Especially since we've come from the small town of Hindeloopen! But we're not staying long here-tomorrow we are off to Utrecht. There is not so long left on the tour now and so much to see!
Another thing too that Dad insisted I say is that we have discovered one of the most amazing foods while here in Dutch-Land: Stroopwaffels!! They're 2 really thin waffely things that have a layer of gooey, caramelly stuff in the middle! YUM! We've had them everyday since we discovered them!!
In excactly a week from now I will be on a plane, not far from home. 7 weeks is the longest I've ever been away from home. It doesn't feel like 7 weeks though. In some ways it feels like 2 weeks, in another it feels like 3 months. It feels like a whole lot more than 6 weeks ago that we were seeing the sights of Rome but it all seems to have gone so fast! At the moment I'm just trying to enjoy every second of it while it lasts!!!
Heres hoping that we pick up some nice weather in Dubai to bring home to Melbourne!
Lots of Love,
Emma xxxxxx
Sunday 15 May 2011
Bicycles and Carnivals
Everyone uses a bike to get to just about anywhere here. It's not like Australia where trips are mostly made by lycra-clad enthusiasts. Here bike trips are made by anyone, any wheather and in any clothes. I'm not joking-girls will ride in skirts and high heels. Also, dinking is extremly common. It's kind of like 'Oh you don't have a bike that you can ride with me at this very second? Jump on the back of mine then!' The other thing is that our group sticks out like a sore thumb. One, some of us a wearing helmets (you hardly ever see people wearing them here because the infastructure is so good they don't need it) and Two, we have all got brand new, shiny (and mostly baby blue...) Gazellle bikes. Walking down the streets here you see hundreds and hundreds of bikes (I think I've seen more bikes than cars here!) but very few that are new. In fact, most of the bikes are old (and rusty) because people don't need top quality bikes for the rides they do in their ordinary lives.
The other things that we have been enjoying here in Groningen (but not at night.... I'll tell you why in a sec) are the carnivals. There are at least 3 spots here, including one right across the road-it goes to very late at night :/-and there are quite a few rides :) Mum, Ben, Joel and I went on the "Crazy Coaster" yesterday and this afternoon Joel and I went on the "Future Dance" and the "Rock It" (we did the Rock It with Dad as well) We also got MASSIVE fairy flosses yester day (:D) and today we got these yummy dough thing covered with icing sugar and apple in the middle-YUMMY! :)
Another thing you need to know. My mother decided to take a "short cut" the other night that went through a nature trail, across a padock (with cows in it), over a fence and along the top of a dyk lock. I am not kidding. Also, that days ride was supposedly meant to be 80kms but someone used their GPS to work it out and it was more like 110!!!
I have seen windmills and clogs (and some other things that you may think of in dutch land.....)!! We have seen 3 big windmills and 2 miniture ones as well as a rack of clogs and 2 people actually wearing them!!!! I was so excited!!! Also we went across a cannal in a tiny kinda boaty thingy (with our bikes) and it was hand pulled!! Joel had a go but he definitely wasn't as good as the man running it :P
Everything here in Dutch land is pretty good (although today it was a tad drizzely every so often). We are very glad for the day of rest we've had today as it was hard going having a 63km day and then a 110km day-even if that was a few days ago now! We are in Groningen now but tomorrow we are "sneeking" over to sneek (as Dad says..... very bad joke Dad) and then we have a night in Hindeloopen before we ride into the big lights of Amsterdam :P
Hope things are not too bad in Aus and we will try to bring the weather home with us!!
Love Emma xxx
The other things that we have been enjoying here in Groningen (but not at night.... I'll tell you why in a sec) are the carnivals. There are at least 3 spots here, including one right across the road-it goes to very late at night :/-and there are quite a few rides :) Mum, Ben, Joel and I went on the "Crazy Coaster" yesterday and this afternoon Joel and I went on the "Future Dance" and the "Rock It" (we did the Rock It with Dad as well) We also got MASSIVE fairy flosses yester day (:D) and today we got these yummy dough thing covered with icing sugar and apple in the middle-YUMMY! :)
Another thing you need to know. My mother decided to take a "short cut" the other night that went through a nature trail, across a padock (with cows in it), over a fence and along the top of a dyk lock. I am not kidding. Also, that days ride was supposedly meant to be 80kms but someone used their GPS to work it out and it was more like 110!!!
I have seen windmills and clogs (and some other things that you may think of in dutch land.....)!! We have seen 3 big windmills and 2 miniture ones as well as a rack of clogs and 2 people actually wearing them!!!! I was so excited!!! Also we went across a cannal in a tiny kinda boaty thingy (with our bikes) and it was hand pulled!! Joel had a go but he definitely wasn't as good as the man running it :P
Everything here in Dutch land is pretty good (although today it was a tad drizzely every so often). We are very glad for the day of rest we've had today as it was hard going having a 63km day and then a 110km day-even if that was a few days ago now! We are in Groningen now but tomorrow we are "sneeking" over to sneek (as Dad says..... very bad joke Dad) and then we have a night in Hindeloopen before we ride into the big lights of Amsterdam :P
Hope things are not too bad in Aus and we will try to bring the weather home with us!!
Love Emma xxx
Monday 9 May 2011
The Land of Windmills and Clogs???
Dad wants a loft.
We are staying in Dieren, Netherlands for the night in an apartment (which is really just the top 2 floors of someones house) but there is a loft that dad loves. That is appartently the next project after the garage and the front yard.
Anyway, on to more pressing matters!!! That of Windmills and clogs :) Not that there really is a matter... There are about a million windturbines but so far no windmills (our host, Constance, said there are hardly any here anyway) and no one has been wearing any clogs... :( I'm sure I'll find a pair somewhere that I can wear to spur a nation into wearing their traditional footwear!! CLOGS ARE COOL!!!! ahahahahaha
So stuff we have done since I last wrote on this bloggy of mine.
We ended up seeing Lion King and We Will Rock You which were both AMAZING!!! :) Ben LOVED the lion king and was on the edge of his seat all through the second half. We Will Rock You was just incredible and when we were chatting to one of the customs officers last night he said that he was pleased we had seen it and that he had seen it at least a half a dozen times.
We went on the London Eye-most gorgeous view from the top AND you get your photo taken :D (I love photos). We also visited Big Ben (cool but really it's just a clock-even if it is on top of the parliment building) and 2 of Londons amazing churches: Westminster Abbey and St Pauls. They are very different but beautiful in their own right. We didn't go inside the Abbey-the queue was too long-and only me dad and I had a quick look inside St Pauls but we couldn't see all of it because they had a service was on and also, sadly, the whispering wall was closed :/
We didn't get around to visiting LegoLand so mum said that we would go out and get some lego for Ben instead. Mum, Ben and I went to get it while Joel and Dad went to Lord's (Joel loved it and Mum and I agreed that dad secretly had an excellent time too). Unfortunately, this was the time I thought would be good for Maddame Tassuades but we spent all morning in Department Stores instead..... >:/
Last night we caught the (very lovely) boat over to the Netherlands. The boat was great but I don't know any dutch :O Apparently most people speak english but we did learn that it is useful to have a dutch speak with you when we went out to do some supermarket shopping and Constance came with us..... I've decided I'm going to pick up words as I go and when we leave the Netherlands in 2 weeks I will be fluent in Dutch :)
Anyway, that is everything for now.
I don't know when we might get internet access and I can write again.... Hopefully not too long.
Wish us luck on a bicycle bonanza :)
And now a parting joke ;)
A man walks into a french restraunt and asks the waiter: Do you have frog legs??
The waiter replies: Yes.
And the man respondes: Well you better hop off and get me a sandwich then.
Ahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha :D
I'm so funny :)
Hugs, Love and A Big Sloppy Kiss ;)
From
Emma xxxxxxxxxx
We are staying in Dieren, Netherlands for the night in an apartment (which is really just the top 2 floors of someones house) but there is a loft that dad loves. That is appartently the next project after the garage and the front yard.
Anyway, on to more pressing matters!!! That of Windmills and clogs :) Not that there really is a matter... There are about a million windturbines but so far no windmills (our host, Constance, said there are hardly any here anyway) and no one has been wearing any clogs... :( I'm sure I'll find a pair somewhere that I can wear to spur a nation into wearing their traditional footwear!! CLOGS ARE COOL!!!! ahahahahaha
So stuff we have done since I last wrote on this bloggy of mine.
We ended up seeing Lion King and We Will Rock You which were both AMAZING!!! :) Ben LOVED the lion king and was on the edge of his seat all through the second half. We Will Rock You was just incredible and when we were chatting to one of the customs officers last night he said that he was pleased we had seen it and that he had seen it at least a half a dozen times.
We went on the London Eye-most gorgeous view from the top AND you get your photo taken :D (I love photos). We also visited Big Ben (cool but really it's just a clock-even if it is on top of the parliment building) and 2 of Londons amazing churches: Westminster Abbey and St Pauls. They are very different but beautiful in their own right. We didn't go inside the Abbey-the queue was too long-and only me dad and I had a quick look inside St Pauls but we couldn't see all of it because they had a service was on and also, sadly, the whispering wall was closed :/
We didn't get around to visiting LegoLand so mum said that we would go out and get some lego for Ben instead. Mum, Ben and I went to get it while Joel and Dad went to Lord's (Joel loved it and Mum and I agreed that dad secretly had an excellent time too). Unfortunately, this was the time I thought would be good for Maddame Tassuades but we spent all morning in Department Stores instead..... >:/
Last night we caught the (very lovely) boat over to the Netherlands. The boat was great but I don't know any dutch :O Apparently most people speak english but we did learn that it is useful to have a dutch speak with you when we went out to do some supermarket shopping and Constance came with us..... I've decided I'm going to pick up words as I go and when we leave the Netherlands in 2 weeks I will be fluent in Dutch :)
Anyway, that is everything for now.
I don't know when we might get internet access and I can write again.... Hopefully not too long.
Wish us luck on a bicycle bonanza :)
And now a parting joke ;)
A man walks into a french restraunt and asks the waiter: Do you have frog legs??
The waiter replies: Yes.
And the man respondes: Well you better hop off and get me a sandwich then.
Ahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha :D
I'm so funny :)
Hugs, Love and A Big Sloppy Kiss ;)
From
Emma xxxxxxxxxx
Friday 6 May 2011
Tales From England
So, I haven’t blogged in a while-sorry! Well I dunno how long it’s been but we’ve done a whole heap of stuff so it probably seems like a lot longer than it actually is.
When I last blogged, we were in Pelsall but since then we’ve had 1 night in St Neots and now this will be our 3rd night here under the bright lights of London.
Fast Fact!! There are more people living in London than there is in the whole of Australia!!
Other stuff we did in Pelsall. Well, we visited 2 castles: Tamworth and Warwick (You don’t pronounce the 2nd w) Tamworth was smaller but nice and Warwick truly was an entire day out (it was a 20 minute walk from the parking block). It was a fun day though. We also stayed an extra night because we couldn’t get tickets for the train on the right day. Graham took Dad, Joel and I went to see the Walsall Saddlers play (Graham managed to talk our way through the corporate section!). We arrived at half time and they were 1-nil up and they went on to kick another goal in the time we were there. It was a good experience but the crowds kept yelling at random things that I was like “WHY ARE THEY YELLING?” and dad was like “I DON’T KNOW!”.
We ended up only having one night in St Neots with Gareth and Lyn but their house was lovely and all of us wished we had another night or 2 there! We went into Cambridge and went punting on the river Cam (and saw all the Colleges and Unis). We also had English fish and chips (served Italian style-too much for 1 sitting but you still eat it all because it tastes good)
We caught the train down to London and have been here for the last few days. So far we have visited Ripley’s Believe it or Not (some I believed, some I notted), Buckingham Palace (da queen is in da house), Tower of London and the Royal Jewels (ooooo-sparkly!!!), Tower Bridge and also seen ‘Wicked’ (we are also hoping to see ‘Lion King’ and ‘We Will Rock You’). There is still so much more to be seen!!
I was also thinking about what my expectations were of all the places we’ve been to. I can’t say I really thought about it before hand but one of the things I’ve noticed in all my travels throughout my life, is that each place has a kind of unique ‘vibe’ to it. The vibe in all the cities has been great and it’s hardly anything like you might seen in a film or on TV (mind you, we had to explain to some of the neighbours at Pelsall that Aussies don’t work a few hours a week, go have a surf in the arvos or ride kangaroos like you might see in films and TV from Australia!) London is also a tad bigger than I expected. The streets are wider and I guess I kinda expected stand still traffic all day but I guess not...
Other things we’re hoping to do in London:
Joel’s very keen on Lourds and both the boys want to go to LegoLand. I wouldn’t mind going to Madame Tuassades and seeing some more shows. I don’t think dad minds much and mum wants to see all the sights but is trying to take it day by day. Also, little Ben is very keen on visiting Big Ben-something we haven’t got round to yet.
Well that’s it for now. I’ll put this up later because we’ve got limited internet connection here and we want to spend our time doing stuff.
Love to you all!!
Emma xxxxxxxx
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